Advent: Waiting on Christmas

After Thanksgiving, we entered into the pre-Christmas period. I look forward to this three-four weeks of preparation for Christmas each year – when peace and joy scatter in the air wherever we go. The pretty lights are hung up in the neighborhood. The Christmas wreaths and candy cane decorations are displayed around the houses. Even the radio stations started playing the non-stop Christmas carols a couple weeks back. David and I set up our Christmas tree last weekend. As we decorated the tree, we couldn’t help thinking about how people before Christ got ready for Jesus’ coming: what were Mary and Joseph thinking; what were the shepherds, wise men, and Angels doing; and how John the Baptist reacted … Instead of rushing through the beautiful, reflective season of Advent as we shopped for the gifts and wrapped them, we wanted to prepare our hearts to be ready too. Maybe from next year we can use Advent traditions, like Advent wreaths, Advent calendars, or Jesse tree, paired with Scripture verses, to instill joyful anticipation in our home for the month of December.



As we put up the Christmas decorations, we took down the Thanksgiving, even the Halloween decorations. I hate to waste the beautiful pumpkin. So here is what we did to it: we used it as a bowl to make the marinated rib pumpkin soup (ingredients: marinated ribs, chestnuts, onions, carrots and dates). The soup was a little too spicy for a pregnant woman (since I used the wrong pepper sauce). But David liked it. For the seeds, we toasted half of them and they were addictive to eat!

David and I continue to be amazed by Emily every day. We are amazed at what a great sleeper she is and how easy and calm she is with everything. Every time when we tried to tell her that there is a baby in my tommy, she would touch and kiss my belly - even she doesn't know what it is yet. She started brushing teeth every night. She always does so with a smile and eagerness. The only things that take a little work now are cutting her finger nails (normally we can only trim one or two finger nails at a time) and weaning the bottle for milk (she would only take sippy cup or glass for water, but not milk, unless she is very thirsty). She tells us that she has her own will too. Since Emily started walking and our house was not completely baby-proofed, plus the slippery tiles in the kitchen area, we set up a fence for her to move around in the living area. Now she might have regretted taking that first step during Thanksgiving.

Emily was fascinated with the Christmas lights. The day when we set up the tree, David picked her up from the crib, as soon as she saw the tree and the lights, she bypassed me and pointed to the tree “Ah, Ah, Da, Da, …” , even when David asked her:” Where is mommy?” She was glued in front of the Christmas tree for half an hour. David said her next word may turn out to be “tree”.

Emily wanted to try and smell everything we ate. Every time we had chocolates or toasted nuts, she would come close to our mouths trying to catch our breath or lick some leftover off our lips. It was so cute! I was craving about dumplings after I saw a picture on the website. So Saturday afternoon I decided to make some dumplings. Emily had her first dumpling and she loved it. I made eight dumplings just for her with wheat flour, egg, milk, ground pork, shredded carrots and zuccinni, chopped green onion, spinach, and ground ginger. She eats one every day.

Emily watching football with Daddy (Actually Emily was watching the football; David looked at the camera when I took the picture)

Emily reading with Daddy

Emily's favorite toy nowadays - camera; She carries it everywhere

We had a snow last Wednesday morning. Emily slept in until the snow slowed down. We kept her in the house to prevent getting cold. So all of us watched the snow in our pajamas. Below is a short video of the snow David recorded.